After last week’s massive cliffhanger, I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on the next episode.  I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed by this episode; in fact, I was blown away by it!  We get a fair amount of action as always, but we also learn some things about Gai that no one would have suspected as well as a theory about Inori’s origin.  Intrigued yet?  Let’s get to it!  The episode picks up where we left off last week; Gai was attacked at Point Delta by the Leucocyte and is surrounded by burning rubble.  Tsumugi is able to establish an audio connection with Gai and we find out that he’s okay, but the rest of his team wasn’t so lucky and all of the supplies are beyond saving.  Tsumugi asks if he wants to delay their attack, but he says that they shouldn’t delay it any further.  The last thing we see before a minor time skip is Gai looking at the young girl’s body in the burning rubble as he disconnects his audio device.  After Gai is able to make it out of the affected area, we see that everyone has set up camp and is preparing for their assault on the Leucocyte.  Inori is bandaging up Gai’s injury, but as soon as she’s done, he stands up and addresses his team.  He informs them that their main goal is to get to the control core of the Leucocyte and then hands the reigns over to Kenji, who explains the procedure to everyone.  It turns out, the Leucocyte is, in fact, a satellite and that it has three control panels in total.  When all three points align with one another, it fires wherever it is directed to and with devastating results.  Their objective is to disarm one of the control cores, because without it, there’s no way for the device to work.  The tricky part is that you can’t touch it at all because it will trigger an automatic self-destruct function, which causes the Leucocyte to fire at their location.  Gai then takes over again and says that both Shu and Kenji will be at the center of this operation because of Shu’s King’s Mark and Kenji’s anti-gravity Void.  He goes on to explain that the plan is still viable, though without their reinforcement, total casualties for the even have risen from 5% to 35%.

Shu then stands up and protests, saying that it’s stupid for one out of every three of them to die, just to disarm one device.  Gai rounds on him, saying that if they don’t disarm the core for the Leucocyte, GHQ will be able to use it whenever and wherever they want.  He tells Shu that there’s the threat that the whole nation of Japan will be destroyed, but Shu still doesn’t trust him.  Just then, Arugo rounds on Shu and tells him to read the social cues; everyone is prepared to die fighting and he should understand that.  Embarrassed – and probably angry – Shu takes off and leaves the debriefing.  Gai’s second hand asks if he should go after Shu, but Gai tells him no before continuing to instruct his forces.  We then find Shu sitting on a crate of supplies under a tree, staring off into space when Inori approaches him.  He’s startled at first, but apologizes to her for being in everyone’s way before saying that no one ever listens to him.  Inori cuts him off and seems angry in her own way, though she doesn’t outright yell at him or look angry, and tells him to stop talking like that.  She then hands him something and tells him to do exactly what she says.  We then get to see Makoto sitting in on a video chat with his superior at GHQ, where we learn that Leucocyte 3 will complete it’s orbital pattern in 4 hours and the cage – whatever that is – will be complete.  Makoto informs his superior that it won’t be in time, since the Undertakers plan to attack in two hours and seventeen minutes.  His superior asks him if he has some sort of inside information on the Undertakers, but Makoto simply says that it’s a gut feeling he has.  His superior makes the comment that this is the one time he truly hopes that his instincts are off.  We then see Daryl, who is finally released from the hospital, getting his new Endlave ready for battle.  His assistant tells him that the Undertakers should be attacking just at sundown, which excited Daryl.  However, his assistant infuriates him and he smashes the poor guy’s hand-held device before making the promise that he’ll destroy the person who stole his Endlave from him.

Some time later, we see Gai sitting in a room, hooked up to the transfusion machine again and looking rather weak.  The door opens and it says that it’s Inori who entered, so Gai begins talking.  We find out that right after the Leucocyte attack, Kyo (the young girl) had still been alive.  Gai is torn up over the fact that she was smiling at him and thanking him for bringing her along with him before he had to put her out of her misery.  He admits that it took all he had to keep up his “leader” act in front of everyone.  He starts to wonder if he’ll even be able to repay their sacrifices and if he’s even worthy to do so.  Just as he starts to wallow in his self-pity, Shu enters the room and startles Gai for a split second.  Of course, Gai gathers himself and scolds Shu for eavesdropping, but as he gets up to leave, he stumbles and has to lean against a wall to keep himself upright.  Shu tells him that he didn’t want to see that side of him and Gai laughs, asking him what kind of man he thought he was.  He goes on to tell him that he gets angry, does irrational things and gets spoiled by others.  Shu asks if he means Inori and Gai says “especially her”.  This causes Shu to fly into a rage and lunge at Gai, who – despite his weakened state – easily shoves Shu away and deflects any blows Shu throws at him.  After punching Shu in the face, he is shocked to find that Shu was able to get a hit in.  Gai then asks Shu if he really thinks that he doesn’t feel the weight of everyone’s lives as he shoulders them before going on to say that he doesn’t want to be indifferent; he wants to be worthy of being entrusted with their lives.  He then goes to retrieve the cross what was hanging from his neck (the chain broke when he was fighting with Shu), but as he does so, his arm starts to shake and he isn’t quite able to reach it so Shu retrieves it for him.  After a moment, Shu tells Gai that he’ll help as much as he can too.  Gai tells him he’s an idiot.  At sundown, Gai orders everyone to begin their operations.  Gai, Shu, Inori and Kenji split off from the rest of the group to intercept the core and disable it while the rest of their forces distract the GHQ soldiers.  Of course, Daryl is there and goes after Ayase, who is the one who stole his Endlave (I thought it looked familiar!).  Ayase, being cocky, thanks him for the present, but is nearly overwhelmed before Ogumou steps in and launches a missile at Daryl.  As everyone outside is fighting, Gai and his group run into a few GHQ soldiers and Inori tells him that she’ll hold them off while they finish the job.

Gai only tells her that she can do as she wishes and Inori pulls out two pistols, demonstrating eerily accurate skills.  Gai, Shu and Kenji finally make it into the core room and Shu retrieves Kenji’s Void and aims it at the core.  While the core is suspended in the anti-gravity field, Funnell is hooked up to the control panel and Tsumugi begins to remotely hack into the system to disable it.  As luck would have it, Daryl switches his control of Endlaves and manages to get inside the core room and fires at Shu and Gai.  Shu can’t do much since he has to keep the core from moving, so Gai is somehow able to get on top of Daryl’s Endlave and fire several shots into the base of the head, severing the control of it.  However, as a result of this, Daryl begins to fire wildly and accidentally hits the core’s containment tube, shattering the glass.  Shu is horrified at what is about to happen and he, Gai and Kenji all flee the area before anything can blow up.  On their way out, they run into Makoto, who does nothing to stop them.  We then find out that the receiver he gave Shu was linked directly to the Leucocyte and if he has activated it, the satellite would have fired at him instantaneously.  Good thing he never activated it!  Makoto then leaves them to their business, but is excited to see what will happen.  Gai decides that if he can get the satellite, which is now hurtling towards earth thanks to Daryl being a dumbass, to line up the Leucocyte at just the right moment, he can activate the receiver and destroy it, but it would come at the price of his own life.  Shu can only watch helplessly as Gai prepares himself for this, but is somehow summoned into the glowy world of the King’s Mark by Inori.  She asks him if he wants to save everyone, including Gai and he says yes.  She smiles and momentarily turns into the girl Shu can barely remember, before an insanely awesome sniper-rifle of sorts sprouts from her chest.  Shu uses it to effectively destroy both satellites, much to Gai’s surprise.  Afterwards, Shu and Gai are watching the lights in the sky and Shu lightly tells Gai that this means he’s his comrade now.  Gai doesn’t say much, but then again, maybe he doesn’t really need to.

Opinions:  Holy crap was this an awesome episode!  Not only did we learn that Gai isn’t the cold-hearted badass we thought he was and is instead someone who cares deeply for his comrades, but Shu finally seems to be able to trust him.  At first, I felt bad for Shu but after hearing Gai’s side of things and seeing the two of them really come to terms with what’s going on, I was happy for Shu.  He finally has found a place he belongs and people he can help with his powers.  Seeing Inori wield those guns was pretty awesome, even if I all I could think of was Steve Carrell from the movie Date Night screaming “KILL SHOT! IT’S A KILL SHOT!” when she cocked her guns sideways. XD  Either way, seeing Shu and Gai’s teamwork was really fun to watch.  I’m really curious about this girl that seems to be a part of Inori, but I don’t know if we’ll find out anytime soon what’s going on with that.  Either way, this episode got me really excited to see how the rest of the series will turn out.  And does anyone else want to know wtf is up with Makoto’s eye?

Score: A+/A+